Choosing the Right Monitor to Prevent Eye Strain
Over the years more and more jobs have become what is referred to as desk jobs. This means we spend more and more time just sitting at a desk. It is always nice to work inside where the temperature and weather is pretty much always the same. Who would not want to work inside in the cool during the heat of the summer?
Many indoor jobs tend to be based around working on the computer. This is not a bad thing but spending hours at the computer at one time can cause eye strain. Many people experience this if they spend most of their day in front of computer monitors.
Not everyone seems to be affected by computer monitors. If you are one of the people that is affected then you know it can be pretty hard to deal with. Symptoms like headaches, nausea and even dizziness (collectively known as computer vision syndrome) are common when you are suffering from eye strain.
Eye strain can be caused by your monitor. Of course you probably already know this as you do not get eye strain from doing other things in the office. The problem is likely not the fact you are sitting in front of a monitor. It is more likely you are using the wrong monitor or settings on the monitor.
Your eyes could be hurting because of the type of monitor you are using. Just like if you are using the wrong keyboard, using the wrong monitor can cause eye strain. One of the most widely used monitors over the years has been the CRT style monitor. CRT monitors are those big bulky monitors that have a large glass tube in them that produces the picture.
Since it costs a lot of money to upgrade the whole office to newer style, LCD monitors many businesses and corporations just do not do this. You will be stuck working with a 15 or 17 inch CRT monitor. CRT monitors actually flicker a lot to produce the picture. It is something that you might not see but it is happening at a fast rate. You can sort of see the flicker if you use your cell phones camcorder to look at the monitor.
Just because the place where you work does not want to upgrade their monitors does not mean that they will not allow you to bring in your own monitor. You can upgrade to a new LCD style monitor with your own money. I am sure that telling your boss that it will help you be a lot more productive surely will not hurt.
Even LCD monitors can cause eye strain if they are not set up right. This can go for both CRT and LCD monitors. Some eye strain can be caused by how high the resolution is set and even the size of the monitor. Like for instance, smaller monitors have smaller text usually and therefore it can make it harder on your eyes. Some large monitors can also have tiny text because they have more resolution. This means you have more working area inside the monitor but things can appear small.
You can adjust the text size in a browser window by holding down the CTRL key and rolling the scroll wheel on the mouse. You can instantly and easily pick out a text size that you like on the go. This allows you to test all kinds of sizes of text until you find the one that least hurts your eyes.
This is just a neat trick that not everyone knows about. Sometimes text inside of email programs or web pages is just too tiny to read. Now you know how to make the text larger very easily.
Another thing that can cause eye strain is how close you are sitting next to the monitor. You might have noticed sitting too close to the TV can cause eye strain and the same thing will happen when you are sitting at the computer all day. This has something to do with the way your eyes focus and could be kind of related to a focal length your eyes like to be at.
So just how far should you be sitting away from your monitor to prevent eye strain? You should be sitting between 25-30 inches away from your monitor. Everyone will be different but somewhere around 25-30 inches or arms length away should be perfect if you want to reduce eye strain.
No matter what you do, you will likely have some eye strain. This is just naturally going to happen so it is best to take breaks. Just look at something else every now and then and do not just focus on the computer monitor for hours on end. This will make it a lot easier on your eyes.
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